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As I listened to the words of Jesus, my understanding of protection became clearer. Honestly, it wasn't necessarily what I was hoping for.

Imagine the scene as Jesus prepared to send out his disciples in twos for ministry (Matt. 10). Far from a pump-you-up pep talk, he seemed to be preparing them for the worst. "When you are arrested, don't worry about what to say in your defense," he said. "Everyone will hate you because of your allegiance to me," he predicted. And then he encouraged them not to fear those who wanted to kill them. "They can only kill your body, they cannot touch your soul" (Matt. 10:28). Gee, I think, they can kill only my body? And this should be a relief?

The fact is, God cares more about our spiritual health than our physical health. Our bodies are going to die. Our souls are going to live forever. And God's ability to protect our souls from eternal judgment and eternal death is more significant than his ability to protect our bodies from disease or death. Trapped in these bodies and in this time, it is hard for us to grasp. So in our prayer requests for safe travel and physical health, and in our more desperate prayers amid great difficulties, we try to apply to our bodies his promises of protection for our souls, and we're left disappointed, accusing him of falling down on the job. But we will continue to be disappointed in him until our value system lines up with his, until we value the eternal life of our souls more than the limited life of our mortal bodies, until we understand that God's primary agenda is kingdom building. It may cost us our very lives, and he is okay with that.

When we read the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17, a prayer of protection for his disciples, we can't help feeling hopeful. Jesus prayed, "Holy Father, keep them and care for them … keep them safe from the Evil One" (John 17:11b, 15b). Surely God answers the prayers of Jesus with a resounding Yes!

As we listen in on this prayer, we can assume that God heard it and that Jesus always prayed in complete accordance with his Father's will. So we might expect that God's affirmative answer to Jesus' prayer would mean that the disciples never faced any harm, right? But we know that isn't what happened. History records that all but one of the disciples were killed for their allegiance to Christ. Only John is said to have lived to old age, and he was severely persecuted for the sake of the gospel. Most of the disciples spent years in prison and were stoned, beheaded, or crucified.

So how do we reconcile Jesus' prayer of protection for the disciples with the reality that nearly every one of them died a martyr's death? Is that how God protects those he loves?

Jesus asked his Father to protect the disciples and us from the Evil One because he knows that the Devil wants to destroy us. In fact, according to 1 Peter 5:8, Satan "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for some victim to devour." Satan brings suffering to diminish our faith, he brings temptation to deceive us, and he brings doubt about God's love and goodness to estrange us from God.

But since Jesus prayed for us, asking his Father to protect us from the Evil One, we are not at Satan's mercy. God has answered the prayer of Jesus with a resounding Yes! While Satan may win a battle or two in the life of the believer, he will never win the war against the soul. Jesus has prayed for his own, and we are protected.

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October 2005, Vol. 49, No. 10